Gold nanodots-decoration stabilizes and activates metastable metallic phase MoS2 nanosheets for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction

作者：Wang, W.; Ma, L.; Kong, X.; Kang, Q.; Ding, C.; Qin, S.; Tang, P.; Xu, T.; Bi, H.^*; Sun, L.^*

来源：Materials Today Nano, 2022, 18: 100209.

DOI：10.1016/j.mtnano.2022.100209

• Transition metal dichalcogenides
• MoS2 nanosheets
• Metallic phase
• Hydrogen evolution reaction

Hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), an efficient and sustainable method for clean hydrogen energy producing, has been impeded by scarcity and costly of precious metals electrocatalysts. Two-dimensional (2D) metallic phase MoS2 (M-MoS2) nanosheets (NSs) have been identified as cost-effective and efficient alternative electrocatalysts for HER. However, the practical applications of M-MoS2 NSs are often limited by the metastable property of their metallic phase. Here, we demonstrate both the metallic phase stability and the electrocatalytic activity of the M-MoS2 NSs can be dramatically improved by gold (Au) nanodots (NDs) decoration. The obtained Au NDs decorated M-MoS2 NSs (namely, Au NDs@M-MoS2 NSs) maintain well their metallic phase even after about 100 days storage, while the M-MoS2 NSs have already transferred to dominant 2H phase one for about 2 weeks. The results of first-principles density functional theory (DFT) calculation also indicate that the Au NDs modification can stabilize the metastable metallic phase of M-MoS2 NSs. Moreover, the as-prepared Au NDs@M-MoS2 NSs also show remarkable enhanced electrocatalytic activity toward HER. These findings may open up an ideal approach to stabilize and activate the metastable metallic phase 2D transition metal dichalcogenides-based electrocatalysts for various promising applications.

• 单位
  常州工学院